i feel i'm more open to new experiences ,have a broader view of things.if something isn't in black and white i'm ok with that.
over the years i've learned to trust&rely on my intuitions and premonitions .my children are firm believers in the statement "there's something more out there" and i think it affects them positively just as it does me.i just feel bad when i have to remind them "honey that's not really playground material" when they read a post here , read or hear something they find interesting and want to go to school and tell their schoolmates .they're young 8&9 so you never know what kind of reaction you'll get,lol.
but i have family and friends that totally support our beliefs either through experiences of there own or through others.~~amy~~

But now, as I'm older and have had several more experiences, I'm a lot more comfortable. And my recent visits have made me more and more confident in myself.

I was shy, worried, and emotional growing up, even the slightest thing would make me cry. But for some reason after an encounter two years ago I wasn't scared. I stared the spirit in the face...literally.

So I'm really grateful for all the spirits and happenings I've encountered over the years.

Hello.
I grew up in what I believed to be a haunted house.
When I was a child, I would witness shadows of what appeared to be people, corpes rising from the wooden floor boards, forms coming out of my closet, pacing foot falls, voices whispering in my ear, and so on. A few times I would be out of the house and out of the state and still I would experiance unique happenings?.
When I was young I believed I had problems, I of course could not tell any one for the fear of someone accusing me of just wanting attention. I grew up shy and I often internalized my hurts.

Young adult hood, I began pursing these issues. Reading, research, asking questions of anyone who was kind enough to give me their perspective on what could of happened. I spoke to my mother asking if she witnessed, anything unusual. She backed me up on a few events we had in that little house. My mother also clued me in on her mother's background.

These experiances frightned me as a child, as an adult accepting it has allowed me to grow.
Not just because of the "unexplained" but with life, with my personal relationships, with how I conduct my self when I think no one is watching me. All in all the experiance could of hurt me, but I believe it allowed me to be open. Now I hear something or see something, first I ask my self..." what could of cause it ? Cat walking too fast, house settling, etc. " But there are those times when it can not be rationalized, so I accept it. And keep on going.

Funny thing I will say....The little house I grew up in is now a bussiness. I work there now.

For those of you who have had a ghost encounter, I'm curious how the experience has changed your perspective on life. Have you become more religious? Less? Are you more fearful? More confident? If you've had months or even years to look back on your experience, has it enriched your life?

I'd like to hear what you think about what happens after the encounter.

-Jeff

Certainly every thing we experience and the way we interpret it brings us to who and where we are. The most influential of experience brings personal development to many of us. My spiritual encounters have indeed profoundly altered my perspective as well as my reality. Not so at first though. Initially the life and mind altering encounters were a trauma different from and far beyond any thing I had ever faced. Based upon what I decided to learn and accept by the events, the results could have taken many directions. I could make decisions pertaining to the encounters to lean toward enlightenment or I could have decided that since the spirit world is "popularly" unknown to us, it is to be rejected and feared. Since the latter didn't make much sense to me as a truth of my own I chose door number one. I have had several years to undergo and reflect upon the mysteries of the spirit world contact with the living, and yes, it has made a impact on me in a profound way in mind, body, and spirit. It has caused me to set sight on arriving to a greater understanding, compassion, and appreciation for the living and the dead, as well as my home the earth and the heavens. It has opened doors of mind, body, and spirit never before accessed, and has unlocked others that I willingly barred. It has given me insight that it is the certainty of uncertainty that causes us fears in life. It's taught me to know what I have conviction to and to be faithful to the rest. I have gained security in knowing that I will understand what is necessary for me to know in the fullness of my time; and that what I need to know is distributed accordingly by the Creator.

As a result of ongoing encounters thinking habits that might have over time become rooted in cynicism grow up or outward rather than down or inward. The process of personal development, the thoughtful revelations, that resulted by the awareness wakened within me is a long painstaking conscious commitment to spiritual growth with a cirriculum so complex that I have come to accrept synchronicity as a reality; orchestrated events assisted by the hand of the Creator in order to help us through our individual personal purpose in life. No longer do I believe that any thing happens purely by chance. Every moment, every thought, every encounter of every day is part of a master blue print designed specifically for each and every living creature by the Creator. As well I have come to view the power of choice and free will in different light. I now believe we do play the leading role in our own destinies, and although we cannot change who and what we are we can change the deciding path and the outcome thereof. We can chose the path of learning and development. We can chose to be/become spiritual or not so spiritual beings. I have come to believe that experience and knowledge void of spiritual awareness causes us to expand rather than to grow. I have gained awarness that to grow we need to be strongly and deeply rooted to some thing. A weak root system will not produce a product capable of a perpetual crop. A weak root is only onto itself. It provides self nourishment then it dies, forever, as opposeed to growing anew. I have come to understand that the nature of earth is not a paradox, but a simplified form of every human life. I have come to learn that it has much to teach us if we listen. I have come to accept that we will all experience and learn in our own fullness of time based upon individual need, want, and desire. I have learned to be aware of the joy of work and the value of fun.

It would not be reasonable to say that contact with the spirit world has changed my religion. I view religion as a form of community practice nuturing awareness of our belief and of our faith. It has it's place and is productive for many, as it has been for me during different stages in my life, and may again be purposeful. It is perstpctive and spirituality that has changed within me, as well as openess and awareness to all that is around and about. It is the difference between submission and faith, between acceptance and knowing. Awareness where many may arrive at one or another point in life, but awareness I don't think would have surfaced for me not for a little tug from beyond.

Is the spiritual realm about God? You bettcha! Of coursee it is. It's all about the Creator. It's not logical to think that there is life, life after death, and after death contact with life with out the Creator present on some level. It's the Almighty letting us know that we are elemental parts of some thing larger than our selves.

For those of you who have had a ghost encounter, I'm curious how the experience has changed your perspective on life. Have you become more religious? Less? Are you more fearful? More confident? If you've had months or even years to look back on your experience, has it enriched your life?

I'd like to hear what you think about what happens after the encounter.

-Jeff

Certainly every thing we experience and the way we interpret it brings us to who and where we are. The most influential of experience brings personal development to many of us. My spiritual encounters have indeed profoundly altered my perspective as well as my reality. Not so at first though. Initially the life and mind altering encounters were a trauma different from and far beyond any thing I had ever faced. Based upon what I decided to learn and accept by the events, the results could have taken many directions. I could make decisions pertaining to the encounters to lean toward enlightenment or I could have decided that since the spirit world is "popularly" unknown to us, it is to be rejected and feared. Since the latter didn't make much sense to me as a truth of my own I chose door number one. I have had several years to undergo and reflect upon the mysteries of the spirit world contact with the living, and yes, it has made a impact on me in a profound way in mind, body, and spirit. It has caused me to set sight on arriving to a greater understanding, compassion, and appreciation for the living and the dead, as well as my home the earth and the heavens. It has opened doors of mind, body, and spirit never before accessed, and has unlocked others that I willingly barred. It has given me insight that it is the certainty of uncertainty that causes us fears in life. It's taught me to know what I have conviction to and to be faithful to the rest. I have gained security in knowing that I will understand what is necessary for me to know in the fullness of my time; and that what I need to know is distributed accordingly by the Creator.

As a result of ongoing encounters thinking habits that might have over time become rooted in cynicism grow up or outward rather than down or inward. The process of personal development, the thoughtful revelations, that resulted by the awareness wakened within me is a long painstaking conscious commitment to spiritual growth with a cirriculum so complex that I have come to accrept synchronicity as a reality; orchestrated events assisted by the hand of the Creator in order to help us through our individual personal purpose in life. No longer do I believe that any thing happens purely by chance. Every moment, every thought, every encounter of every day is part of a master blue print designed specifically for each and every living creature by the Creator. As well I have come to view the power of choice and free will in different light. I now believe we do play the leading role in our own destinies, and although we cannot change who and what we are we can change the deciding path and the outcome thereof. We can chose the path of learning and development. We can chose to be/become spiritual or not so spiritual beings. I have come to believe that experience and knowledge void of spiritual awareness causes us to expand rather than to grow. I have gained awarness that to grow we need to be strongly and deeply rooted to some thing. A weak root system will not produce a product capable of a perpetual crop. A weak root is only onto itself. It provides self nourishment then it dies, forever, as opposeed to growing anew. I have come to understand that the nature of earth is not a paradox, but a simplified form of every human life. I have come to learn that it has much to teach us if we listen. I have come to accept that we will all experience and learn in our own fullness of time based upon individual need, want, and desire. I have learned to be aware of the joy of work and the value of fun.

It would not be reasonable to say that contact with the spirit world has changed my religion. I view religion as a form of community practice nuturing awareness of our belief and of our faith. It has it's place and is productive for many, as it has been for me during different stages in my life, and may again be purposeful. It is perstpctive and spirituality that has changed within me, as well as openess and awareness to all that is around and about. It is the difference between submission and faith, between acceptance and knowing. Awareness where many may arrive at one or another point in life, but awareness I don't think would have surfaced for me not for a little tug from beyond.

Is the spiritual realm about God? You bettcha! Of coursee it is. It's all about the Creator. It's not logical to think that there is life, life after death, and after death contact with life with out the Creator present on some level. It's the Almighty letting us know that we are elemental parts of some thing larger than our selves.

The experience of being able to know when things happen before they happen and that I've heard a spirit growl in my home and have seen a ghost, has made me believe that there is life after death. That energy never dies, which makes me not afraid of death. I know that what I've been given is a gift and also that life is a gift. We have to open our eyes and minds to many possibilities in this life. And when I find so many people like me I find that I'm not alone anymore. The only ones who can and are willing to believe me in what I've seen and heard are the ones with very open minds.

The spirit that came in my home very much scared me almost to death. For months I could not believe that it happened to me but I know that it was very very real. The ghost I encountered was a friends son who had died and when they were away I asked to see him because his mother had loved him so much and I wanted to know him too. So I asked to see him. I now know that I have the power to ask and at some point receive what I ask for. The other thing is "be careful what you ask for". You also never know how you will react to the unknown when it does show itself.

I could write a book about this very subject but to answer your question the experience of learning I'm not only psychic but that I can see, feel, hear and can channel spirits to the light, has changed my life for the better. I was raised IRISH CATHOLIC, lol, and I wasn't a very good one for many years until my experience of going to a haunted castle. My faith was reinstated and I learned very quickly to not only value life and not take it for granted anymore but to value others more as well.

So yes it was very impactful to say the least.Blessings

For those of you who have had a ghost encounter, I'm curious how the experience has changed your perspective on life. Have you become more religious? Less? Are you more fearful? More confident? If you've had months or even years to look back on your experience, has it enriched your life?

I'd like to hear what you think about what happens after the encounter.

-Jeff

Certainly every thing we experience and the way we interpret it brings us to who and where we are. The most influential of experience brings personal development to many of us. My spiritual encounters have indeed profoundly altered my perspective as well as my reality. Not so at first though. Initially the life and mind altering encounters were a trauma different from and far beyond any thing I had ever faced. Based upon what I decided to learn and accept by the events, the results could have taken many directions. I could make decisions pertaining to the encounters to lean toward enlightenment or I could have decided that since the spirit world is "popularly" unknown to us, it is to be rejected and feared. Since the latter didn't make much sense to me as a truth of my own I chose door number one. I have had several years to undergo and reflect upon the mysteries of the spirit world contact with the living, and yes, it has made a impact on me in a profound way in mind, body, and spirit. It has caused me to set sight on arriving to a greater understanding, compassion, and appreciation for the living and the dead, as well as my home the earth and the heavens. It has opened doors of mind, body, and spirit never before accessed, and has unlocked others that I willingly barred. It has given me insight that it is the certainty of uncertainty that causes us fears in life. It's taught me to know what I have conviction to and to be faithful to the rest. I have gained security in knowing that I will understand what is necessary for me to know in the fullness of my time; and that what I need to know is distributed accordingly by the Creator.

As a result of ongoing encounters thinking habits that might have over time become rooted in cynicism grow up or outward rather than down or inward. The process of personal development, the thoughtful revelations, that resulted by the awareness wakened within me is a long painstaking conscious commitment to spiritual growth with a cirriculum so complex that I have come to accrept synchronicity as a reality; orchestrated events assisted by the hand of the Creator in order to help us through our individual personal purpose in life. No longer do I believe that any thing happens purely by chance. Every moment, every thought, every encounter of every day is part of a master blue print designed specifically for each and every living creature by the Creator. As well I have come to view the power of choice and free will in different light. I now believe we do play the leading role in our own destinies, and although we cannot change who and what we are we can change the deciding path and the outcome thereof. We can chose the path of learning and development. We can chose to be/become spiritual or not so spiritual beings. I have come to believe that experience and knowledge void of spiritual awareness causes us to expand rather than to grow. I have gained awarness that to grow we need to be strongly and deeply rooted to some thing. A weak root system will not produce a product capable of a perpetual crop. A weak root is only onto itself. It provides self nourishment then it dies, forever, as opposeed to growing anew. I have come to understand that the nature of earth is not a paradox, but a simplified form of every human life. I have come to learn that it has much to teach us if we listen. I have come to accept that we will all experience and learn in our own fullness of time based upon individual need, want, and desire. I have learned to be aware of the joy of work and the value of fun.

It would not be reasonable to say that contact with the spirit world has changed my religion. I view religion as a form of community practice nuturing awareness of our belief and of our faith. It has it's place and is productive for many, as it has been for me during different stages in my life, and may again be purposeful. It is perstpctive and spirituality that has changed within me, as well as openess and awareness to all that is around and about. It is the difference between submission and faith, between acceptance and knowing. Awareness where many may arrive at one or another point in life, but awareness I don't think would have surfaced for me not for a little tug from beyond.

Is the spiritual realm about God? You bettcha! Of coursee it is. It's all about the Creator. It's not logical to think that there is life, life after death, and after death contact with life with out the Creator present on some level. It's the Almighty letting us know that we are elemental parts of some thing larger than our selves.

Ghosts don`t scare me much at all anymore....I have had many experiences, from voices yelling at me to get out to a childs ghost crawling into bed with me....I am so used to it now, that I take it all as another part of life.

First I would like to thank Jeff for including my story in "Our Haunted Lives".
I have had many ghost experiences and they always leave me wanting more. It seems that each experience raises as many questions as it answers, but having such an experience changes you forever. There is no doubt in my mind that we are not alone, but I still have questions about what exactly these "spooks" are. The one that I saw at my workplace, as recounted in Jeffs book, was definitely not one of my departed loved ones. It was not a residual and it was not harmless. The experience affected me by making me want to learn more about these spirits that surround us. Another affect was that in the years following I lost a lot of the fear that I once had of the unknown, probably because it created a desire in me to learn more about it.
Jeff Revis

"There is no doubt in my mind that we are not alone, but I still have questions about what exactly these "spooks" are."

Same here. It is rare that I encounter a spirit of one I have known or have been attached to. These are questions that arise in my mind often. One question being the spirit being without mind or body, I often wonder how it is that we experience a "physical" image as a encounter.

I have to admit that the woman in my living room looking at me and my cat hunched up and hissing definately changed my life. I want to know more about her and why she is here. I feel like I can sense her with me, especially if I am sad or worried. I did not recognize her, so I don't think it is a relative, but it does give me a sense of peace knowing she is here with me. My fiance brings me roses quite often and I remember the time I moved them from the kitchen to the living room. Someone was not so happy that they had been moved and they bumped the vase. Me and my son just looked at each other and he decided it was time for him to go and get some fresh air. It makes me very content knowing I am not alone in my home.

For those of you who have had a ghost encounter, I'm curious how the experience has changed your perspective on life. Have you become more religious? Less? Are you more fearful? More confident? If you've had months or even years to look back on your experience, has it enriched your life?

I'd like to hear what you think about what happens after the encounter.

-Jeff

Hello,

My family is from a very small town in the south of Louisiana, where almost everyone beleived in ghost.

I had my first encounter when I was 15 years old.

My uncle (mother's brother) died of cancer, so we went "home" (meaning down south) for the services. On the night of the wake, I saw the head of my uncle (his image was solid) in a mirror in the dinning room of hiis home! He was laughing (I could clearly hear his laughter) , happy and he looked fit as if he had never had cancer! I ran and told my mother...I don't remember being scared...more amazed!

I feel blessed to have had this experience; for me it was proof of the after life.

That was many years ago and since then I have had many encounters with ghost. I have expereinced gray spectors. shadows, smells, wisps a smoke like subtance, orbs on a regualr basis. Just last month, I saw a cat in my bedroom! He or she was just sitting in front of me watching me, then the cat faded away!

Interests:Listen to Spooks R Us on the Para-X radio network, Mondays at 10pm eastern time, 7pm pacific. Go to http:www.para-x.com

Posted 30 August 2006 - 07:50 AM

Growing up in the South, it was considered a plus if your home was haunted. In spite of Christian Fundamentalism, ghosts and spirits are accepted and widely believed in. The home I grew up in is apparently haunted by at least 3 different entities, each an individual and not a residual. So for me, it was always normal and accepted. Although at times it was frightening. I never thought about investigating the paranormal until about 15 years ago. The thought that there is a possiblity of an afterlife, without a religious context, had a great effect on me, an epiphany of sorts. Although I am pretty religious (Lutheran), I see no conflict with my faith and the belief in ghosts and spirits. As years have passed, I am more sensitive to what is around me, alive and dead. Each day brings new wonders, spiritual, supernatural and on the physical plane, making me, I believe, a better human being.

For those of you who have had a ghost encounter, I'm curious how the experience has changed your perspective on life. Have you become more religious? Less? Are you more fearful? More confident? If you've had months or even years to look back on your experience, has it enriched your life?

I'd like to hear what you think about what happens after the encounter.

-Jeff

I believe it has made me more aware of the fact that the bodies we are in are just that just bodies we are spirits living in a body. I have always been religious and i know that all of the supernatural things that have occured to me have made my life more enriched and on at least one occasion saved my life.